Four Ways to Keep Your Marketing Team Happy and Productive [Slide Show]

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When you're trying to do more with a smaller budget, the quality of your marketing team becomes even more critical. So how can you keep the team happy, productive, and delivering its best work? In her book Army of Entrepreneurs, Jennifer Prosek offers this managerial advice.

1. Be sensitive to concerns about budget and staff cuts

"Model managers let employees know when bad news is coming and when it isn't," writes Prosek. When prospects look bleak, giving employees an advance warning makes it easier for them to process the realities of a likely cutback. Conversely, why would you want them to worry that something might be wrong if your business has never been healthier?

2. Market your message to your team

You won't achieve employee buy-in with a single memo or email. "The goal is not just to express the information," Prosek argues, "but to act in such a way that staffers understand it." So sell them on your ideas and initiatives using multiple touch points and open communication channels.

3. Talk about money

Financial rewards motivate all of us, and that's why it's important to emphasize the direct relationship between what an employee does and how she is compensated. "[Managers] must continually promote the ways staffers can be in charge of their own financial destinies," says Prosek.

4. Show appreciation and acknowledge anger

Marketing teams feel intense pressure to achieve miraculous results with limited resources. Be sure to express appreciation when they hit those goals. And give them the space to air their frustrations—constructively—when they feel overwhelmed.

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Christian Gulliksen is a writer who has authored several of the Get to the Po!nt newsletters for MarketingProfs. A former editor at Robb Report, he has also contributed to Worth, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter.

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Great tips Christian. I like the last tip, appreciation. It might be a simple gesture but the effect can do wonder. Employees need to know that they have done a good job to be inspired to do better. As leaders, it is our responsibility that we make our team productive.

Another way to keep staff happy is to invest in their professional development. Consider putting your team through courses at MarketingProfs University (www.marketingprofsu.com). We have an extensive library of courses, and we are adding a new course every month.